Question regarding the Shards and the Cosmos

[Addicted]

Apologies if this was already asked or is a dumb question but I was wondering exactly how the different Shards function on a cosmic scale.

We know they are reflections of the Source. We also know that there's an actual universe in XIV, as demonstrated by the existence of Astrologian and Omega and Midgardsormr who traveled actual physical distances to reach the Source from other, inhabited worlds, no dimensional hopping tomfoolery involved.

But what if inhabitants of the shards were able to space travel? Could an inhabitant of the First meet with an inhabitant of the Second if they both traveled to the moon? Is the XIV cosmos shared between the Shards or did Hydaelyn make reflections of the entirety of the XIV universe, thirteen times over? I know Hydaelyn is a powerful entity but such a feat seems pretty farfetched.

[Cilia]

This is brought up quite often...

... suffice to say we don't have the most concrete answer, but in simple terms it's been called a local phenomenon. The dimensional fracture is entirely centered on Hydaelyn; to an outside observer, they'd just see a different shard (or the Source) each time they blinked.

Hard to explain beyond that.

[SannaR]

The splitting only affected our local system. Now is the Moon also split I'm not sure and the dev's are very vague on almost everything else outside of our local system or if you coming from the outside could see anything besides the source due to the other shards resonating at a different frequency or whatever that only get's disrupted seemingly only when cataclysmic stuff happens.

[Iscah]

Is the XIV cosmos shared between the Shards or did Hydaelyn make reflections of the entirety of the XIV universe, thirteen times over? I know Hydaelyn is a powerful entity but such a feat seems pretty farfetched.

Hydaelyn didn't "make" any of it. It was (as far as we are aware) an unintended consequence of banishing Zodiark from the aetherial sea, which somehow shattered reality into multiple planes.

[Jandor]

lol, I asked this the other day.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...Shard-question

Short answer: We don't know.

[Dualblade]

While it's almost certainly not true (more so since we probably would have seen it during the HW Moon cutscene.) I like to think that if someone was viewing Hydaelyn from space the planet would look VERY strange, almost like a broken mirror. But in 4d.

[Jandor]

While it's almost certainly not true (more so since we probably would have seen it during the HW Moon cutscene.) I like to think that if someone was viewing Hydaelyn from space the planet would look VERY strange, almost like a broken mirror. But in 4d.

Maybe the moon got caught in it too.

[Dualblade]

Maybe the moon got caught in it too.

Given Zodiark is sealed there it could be the edge of it, yeah.

[Mansion]

Maybe the moon got caught in it too.

Wouldn't that be weird? If Zodiark is in it?

I kind of assume that from outer space, only the Source/Hydealyn planet would appear (and any subsequent space travel from somewhere to Hydealyn would Land on the Source). Because the shards are reflects of a given world, not separate entities. That way, Shards see the "real" stars and outer universe from their world. But there's no getting out, as they could not exist without the Source... or if they get out, they would cross a one way dimensional border that makes it impossible to land back on any other world but the Source. And in my mind that's why Omega and Middy landed on the Source, and not on a Shard (assuming they arrived after the split, but I might be wrong?)
I don't know if this makes sense?

[Sylvain]

I would personnaly go with the 4D space explanation with the shift only being local, however I have the feeling people at SE will go with the wavelength explanation since most people seem to respond better to that.

However, we still don't know why the balance of light / darkness changes on each shard.
What caused this new equilibrium within each shard?

The whole thing about 4d / wavelength is usually used to explain why they can coexist at the same space and time, no why we'd have a gradient of light vs darkness balance ratio